Pause. Consider.

Steady, hush!

Our words buttoned up on our lips.

Protests die in our throats

As we seek to still our boiling blood.

Conform, conform, conform.

We must conform.

 

But stoppered thoughts build pressure,

And one day the cork will be forced off.

Eye Candy

An enormous platter arrives,

stacked on top of a toppling pillar

threatening to bury you,

but the prize is so great

it is the only thing you can see.

 

A remark can be harmless.

A remark can hurt.

 

When information is gleaned

and used for amusement,

gossip, whisper, giggle, snort:

the pillar will crumble completely.

 

And there will be no-one left

to recover you from the rubble.

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I don’t care

I don’t care.

I don’t care that most people struggle to understand your speech.

I don’t care that they don’t get the references to old films, games and music that you make.

I don’t care that they don’t see the many strengths you have.

I don’t care that they write you off as weird, strange or eccentric.

I don’t care that they don’t understand why I like hanging out with you.

I don’t care that they now label both of us.

I don’t care

because they’ve completely missed who you are, and the ease I feel when I’m near you.

I don’t care

because they will never know the solid, dependable make-up of our friendship.

I don’t care

because they are the ones who have lost out, and I have no pity for them.

Thief Budgie

Lilac fury, fierce eyes,

delicate wings, sweet trilling lies.

 

Swift as wind, ever cunning,

chase away, send them running.

 

Feathered face, iron claws,

needle beak, never pause.